Definitely Come Dance‘s Giovanni Pernice spoke in detail for the first time about his rehearsal room relationship with Amanda Abbington.
Abbington, 50, withdrew from the BBC One show last year and later complained of verbal bullying and harassment against her professional dance partner Pernice, revealing she had suffered PTSD as a result of the experience. While Pernice denied any wrongdoing, the BBC’s months-long investigation into Pernice’s behavior acknowledged Abbington’s complaints of verbal bullying and harassment but concluded that the Italian dancer was not physically aggressive towards her celebrity partner.
Since the investigation, Abbington has said he is considering taking further action on specific allegations, such as the allegation that Pernice made a shocking sexual gesture towards him.
He talked about his relationship with Sherlock Pernice said the actor was interviewed for the first time since the investigation MailOnline that he and Abbington would crack jokes together and “say really mean things, like the c-word.”
Pernice, 34, recalled that the production team noticed she and Abbington were exchanging rude comments, but Abbington insisted it was a joke.
“The production team actually came up to us and said, ‘We noticed you were saying that word to each other, okay?'” Pernice said. he said.
“And he said: ‘Oh yeah no problem, that’s what I call it! Absolutely no problem, I started it’, these were his words. “And I said, ‘Yeah guys, we’re cool, we’re just joking around like this.’”
“He’s the one to start the joke. He would tell a dark joke. “That was the joke we were making all along, it was a very crude joke.”
Pernice, who participated in the BBC dance competition in 2015, was fired from the show after the allegations emerged.
The BBC apologized to Abbington after announcing the findings of the investigation and thanked him for coming forward. He confirmed complaints such as Pernice getting annoyed with the actor while he was teaching her routines.
Pernice said other couples will now be angry too and it’s “not just us”.
He claimed that during the second week of training with the actor, another contestant informed him that Abbington was unhappy with their training.
Pernice claims to have a different impression. “I still have it [Amanda’s] messages. ‘They say: ‘Thank you so much for your patience today, you are an incredible teacher, I thought everything was great,” he said.
“Then one of the celebrities came up to me and said, ‘You haven’t had a great week, have you?’ he said.
“’What are you talking about?’ I thought. But Amanda had told them she’d had a terrible week, and that was before the show even started.”
Pernice also spoke about her experiences with Lorraine Kelly on her self-titled show on Monday, October 22, admitting she was disappointed in rehearsals, but “every single person” Definitely Come Dance or Dancing with the StarsIn the world, you get frustrated because you feel the pressure… You want to give a perfect performance on Saturday night. So disappointment is something that happens when you want to be good.”
Describing his teaching style, the dancer said: “Actually, I am a strict teacher in the public sphere, I admit it myself. I’ve been in the program for nine years, which means you know exactly who Giovanni is and how he teaches. So if you want to achieve greatness at that time, I think this is the right way to do it.”
Pernice insisted.o MailOnline He said he asked for rehearsals to be watched and recorded to “protect” himself, but Abbington claimed it was he who asked for rehearsals to be filmed months earlier.
The dancer said she was “gutted” when Abbington withdrew from the show, citing health reasons, after she noticed two breast lumps and was unable to concentrate on rehearsals. The lumps were determined to be benign.
Abbington told Sun Earlier this month, he allegedly told Pernice, “I’m going to go to the hospital now because this morning I found two lumps on my chest,” to which Pernice allegedly replied, “Let me know how it goes.” He said that moment gave him an excuse to leave Definitely.
But Pernice says she now offers to call her doctor for her.
Reflecting on the last time they communicated, the dancer said: “Amanda told me she couldn’t concentrate because she found two bumps while taking a shower.”
“I said, ‘Please tell me it’s nothing serious,’ and the first thing I did was call my doctor and try to arrange for a scan right away.”
“So the last message between us was me saying to him: ‘Can I help you? Please let me help you, forget the dance, forget the show, this is more important than anything.’ That was the last time I heard from Amanda.” Independent He contacted Abbington’s representatives for comment.
After the results of the investigation were announced, a spokesperson for Pernice said the dancer was “pleased” that the report found “no evidence of threatening or abusive behavior” by her and was relieved that “the overwhelming majority of the allegations have been eliminated.” Applications to the BBC were not approved.”
Meanwhile, Abbington said the BBC’s apology “means a lot” to him, describing it as “validation of my complaint” and “for others who have contacted me since I made my complaint to express their concerns about their own experiences.” .
“I hope that those who feel like they can no longer speak up will be more confident that they will be listened to and believed,” he added.